HANDS ACROSS THE AISLE

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

At the Delaware State Fair in 1980, there was a
fellow named Thomas R. Carper, an up-and-coming
Democrat, who was shaking hands as he campaigned for
re-election as state treasurer, the post he won in 1976
as an energetic 29-year-old.

Carper had heard about a lawyer, an ex-legislator
eight years older than he was, whom the Republicans had
tapped to run for lieutenant governor with Gov. Pierre
S. du Pont, a star politician cruising to re-election,
but Carper did not know him -- someone named Michael N.
Castle.

Carper and Castle met at the fairgrounds in
Harrington that July day. Since both of them were there
for the same reason, they found themselves campaigning
together.

It is, of course, typical Delaware politics, where it
is still more important to know who people are than what
they are, no matter how Republican red or Democratic
blue the rest of the country is.

Carper told that story Monday when he and Castle
spoke to about 75 Young Democrats and Young Republicans
at the Charter School in Wilmington, a group that
included Carper's 16-year-old son Christopher and
14-year-old son Ben, both students in the Young
Democrats' club.

It is four offices later (treasurer, U.S.
representative, governor and U.S. senator) for Carper
and three offices later (lieutenant governor, governor
and U.S. representative) for Castle. Their place in
Delaware politics has gone from untested to overarching,
Carper with his record streak of 11 statewide victories
and Castle with his re-election numbers that hover
around 70 percent.

Together they spoke about the crying need in the
Congress for coalition-building and cordiality between
the two parties, and they held themselves out as
examples of how politics can be.

Hmmm. It sounded for all the world like a
non-aggression pact for 2006, when Carper will be up for
a second term and Castle ought to be the Republicans'
candidate of choice against him.

Castle has never been fond of questions about things
like that, and when he was asked afterwards about a
senatorial cease-fire, he responded characteristically.
He ducked. "I don't even want to get into those things.
I'm just getting through '04 right now," he said.

Carper for his part was only too happy to believe he
had heard the promising words of a truce. "I did.
Peace in the valley -- or at least at the Wilmington
Charter School," he quipped.

This is not really news. The chances that Carper and
Castle would challenge one another are faint. They
already have eluded the politics of collision twice.

As a congressman, Carper waited out Castle's two
terms as governor, rather than run against him, and then
they became parties to the most famous job swap in
Delaware politics. In 1992 Carper took the governorship,
and Castle moved into the state's lone seat in the U.S.
House of Representatives.

Detente prevailed again in 2000 when U.S. Sen.
William V. Roth Jr., a five-term Republican, was up for
re-election. Carper was the governor. Castle was the
congressman. Carper said he would stay out of the Senate
race if Castle wanted to take on Roth, who was 79 and
blocking advancement for both of them. Castle did not,
so Carper did -- and beat him.

In their talk to the students, Carper and Castle came
across as comfortable not only with each other but
within the congressional delegation, which also includes
U.S. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Democrat like Carper.

Biden was not around to appear with the other two,
but not because he disagreed with their premise. He was
engaged in his own display of hands-across-the-aisle,
jetting off to Iraq, Israel, Jordan and Egypt with
Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel and Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln
Chafee, both Republicans, and California Sen. Diane
Feinstein, a Democrat.

It made for a typical congressional recess, Biden out
orbiting and leaving Carper and Castle to tend to the
home fires. Still, if Biden was gone, he was not
forgotten in the political morality play taking shape at
the school.

"Washington doesn't work too well these days. Mike
and I work great together, Mike and Joe Biden and I,"
Carper said.

"We work together. You've got to remember, there are
only three of us down there," Castle said.

Castle mentioned a number of matters he thought ripe
for more cooperation between the parties -- foreign
policy and government finances, particularly deficit
reduction, as well as stem-cell research and the
restructuring of the intelligence agencies.

The students clearly were getting the hang of
politics, Delaware style, as their seating arrangement
in the classroom showed. "Have you divided up like the
Democrats on one side and the Republicans on the other?
Oh no, you're intermingled," Carper said.

A student wanted to know what Castle and Carper
thought about possible presidential candidates for 2008.

Castle said he favored John McCain, the Arizona
senator he called conservative but independent, or Colin
Powell, the outgoing secretary of state, although he
doubted either could win the nomination in his
increasingly conservative party.

Carper said his party has not had much luck with
senators or with candidates from the Northeast, and he
suggested keeping watch on Virginia Gov. Mark Warner or
Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

As much as Castle and Carper say they like Biden,
they did not mention him. Even Delaware togetherness
only goes so far.